In the premiere episode of "Leading Matters," hosted by Tina Seelig, Executive Director of Knight-Hennessy Scholars, John Hennessy shares his leadership journey. As a faculty member, entrepreneur, former president of Stanford University, and chairman of Alphabet, Hennessy discusses guiding teams to success and inspiring innovation. The episode explores the Knight-Hennessy leadership model, highlighting traits like vision, courage, curiosity, and humility. Hennessy shares pivotal career moments, emphasizing problem-solving, historical insights, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Join us for the first of this six-episode series, uncovering the essence of effective leadership and the foundational traits that support it.
Episode References:
KHeystone Projects | Knight-Hennessy Scholars at Stanford University
Connect with us:
Chapters:
(00:00:00) Introduction
Host Tina Seelig introduces the podcast focused on the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program, and welcomes founder John Hennessy.
(00:01:09) Defining Leadership
A definition of leadership and the essential role leaders play in guiding teams.
(00:02:14) Leadership Journey
Becoming a leader and how the role of leadership evolved.
(00:03:24) Recognizing Leadership Potential
Recognizing leadership potential before taking on leadership roles.
(00:04:10) Traits and Behaviors in Leadership
Key traits and behaviors that define leadership and embody the Knight-Hennessy leadership model.
(00:05:24) Focus on Making Others Successful
The importance of focusing on making others successful in leadership roles
(00:06:29) Problem Solving in Leadership
The significance of problem identification and solving in leadership.
(00:07:16) Balancing Crisis Management and Visionary Thinking
Insights on managing crises while maintaining a forward-thinking vision.
(00:08:54) Industry Experience Shaping Academic Leadership
How experience in a startup shaped decision-making in academic leadership.
(00:10:13) Influence of History on Leadership
The impact of history on approaching leadership.
(00:11:06) Acting as a Leader Before Being One
Taking leadership action before holding a formal leadership position.
(00:12:29) Leading vs. Managing
The difference between leadership and management.
(00:13:08) Building a Leadership Team
Selecting team members with complementary skills to lead effectively.
(00:16:07) Motivation Behind Knight-Hennessy Scholars
Starting the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program and its importance in leadership education.
(00:17:10) The Knight-Hennessy Leadership Model
Why it’s crucial to identify and develop specific leadership traits and behaviors in future leaders.
(00:18:21) Finding the Right Problems to Solve
How to find problems that align with one’s skills and passions.
(00:20:34) Guidance for Students with Long-Term Plans
Advice for students who have pre-planned and detailed long-term career plans.
(00:21:31) Choosing a PhD Project
Hennessy shares how curiosity and luck led him to his PhD thesis topic.
(00:22:24) Pursuing Unexpected Opportunities
How seizing unexpected opportunities can lead to success.
(00:24:45) Balancing Risk and Reward in Projects
The benefits of taking on both high-reward and stable projects.
(00:25:42) Can Leadership Be Taught?
The teachability of leadership and its essential traits.
(00:26:28) Exciting Projects from Knight-Hennessy Scholars
Ongoing student projects, including those addressing education and mental health.
(00:28:50) Episode Takeaways
Four key lessons for listeners from this episode.
(00:29:16) Conclusion
Welcome to Leading Matters, a podcast from Knight-Hennessy Scholars, a multicultural and multidisciplinary graduate fellowship program at Stanford University that focuses on leadership.
Tina Seelig:I'm Tina Seelig, your host and executive director of Knight-Hennessy.
Tina Seelig:Throughout these six episodes, I'll talk with John Hennessy about his experiences in different leadership roles, including as a faculty member, entrepreneur, president of Stanford University, and founder of Knight-Hennessy Scholars.
Tina Seelig:Hello everyone.
Tina Seelig:It's a pleasure to welcome you all to Leading Matters at Knight-Hennessy Scholars.
Tina Seelig:Welcome John.
John Hennessy:Thank you, Tina.
John Hennessy:Delighted to be here.
Tina Seelig:Knight-Hennessy Scholars is a multidisciplinary and multicultural fellowship program for graduate students from all seven schools at Stanford University.
Tina Seelig:We provide scholars with up to three years of financial support to pursue their graduate studies at Stanford, while providing them with a leadership development program that prepares them to address complex challenges facing the world.
Tina Seelig:Now, John, different people define leadership in different ways.
Tina Seelig:I'm really curious how you define leadership.
Tina Seelig:Are there some basic concepts that relate to leadership, no matter what type of group or organization you're leading?
John Hennessy:Well, Tina, I think the most important skill for a leader, the most important role that they play, is to help a team really go someplace that they want to get to.
John Hennessy:They know that there are benefits if they can change an organization, move to a different place.
John Hennessy:But they're not exactly sure how to get there.
John Hennessy:And the job of the leader is really to help inspire them to lead the team, to go to someplace new.
John Hennessy:And to accomplish something outstanding.
Tina Seelig:Great.
Tina Seelig:Well, we've had four hundred and twenty-five Knight-Hennessy scholars so far.
Tina Seelig:Starting with our first cohort in 2018, and this fall, we're going to be welcoming ninety new scholars.
Tina Seelig:These six podcasts, we're going to be exploring the traits and the behaviors that we have in the Knight-Hennessy leadership model.
Tina Seelig:And we're going to be hearing from you, John, about how you developed and experienced these traits over the course of your career.
Tina Seelig:Your personal leadership journey has been so incredibly interesting and impressive.
Tina Seelig:Full of examples of really making meaningful change in your roles as a professor and a dean and a provost and the president of the university, as well as being an entrepreneur.
Tina Seelig:And being on many boards and now as the chairman of the board of Alphabet.
Tina Seelig:At what point in your leadership journey did you start seeing yourself as a leader?
John Hennessy:Well, it was a slow process.
John Hennessy:It began relatively early on.
John Hennessy:You're a leader when you become a faculty member.
John Hennessy:You're leading your research group and you're working with the graduate students to really try to do something outstanding.
John Hennessy:And then slowly you get more responsibilities among your colleagues as you develop the opportunities and help them move forward in interesting ways.
John Hennessy:But for me, it was a slow journey that sped up quite a bit near the end, perhaps, as I moved through a number of positions more quickly.
John Hennessy:But without that beginning part of leading in a small group, I think it would have been very hard for me to be prepared to lead when there was a larger group and more complex questions being faced by a team.
Tina Seelig:Did others identify the leadership potential that you had before you saw it in yourself?
Tina Seelig:Or were you there chomping at the bit saying, put me in coach, you know, I want a bigger leadership role?
John Hennessy:I was definitely not chomping at the bit.
John Hennessy:I was very focused on my research and my teaching.
John Hennessy:And the chairman of electrical engineering asked me to take on a role leading an interdisciplinary lab called the computer systems lab that combined faculty from computer science and electrical engineering, working on developing computer systems.
John Hennessy:And that was my first real opportunity to develop leadership, to begin to recruit faculty, to help young faculty develop.
John Hennessy:And that was an important growth journey.
John Hennessy:That was my major leadership position for probably six or seven years.
Tina Seelig:I know that you embody the traits and the behaviors that we outline in our Knight-Hennessy leadership model.
Tina Seelig:And this model includes nine traits that we strive to reinforce in the community.
Tina Seelig:Such as vision, courage, curiosity, and humility, as well as six behaviors, such as creativity, collaboration, decisiveness.
Tina Seelig:And then there are three goals for graduating scholars, including being part of a multicultural community and a commitment to the greater good.
Tina Seelig:What do you think were the traits and the behaviors that you demonstrated, that people saw in you and identified to see you as an emerging leader?
John Hennessy:I think probably the key characteristics they saw was my willingness to work to recruit and develop great faculty.
John Hennessy:And then to also recruit terrific graduate students into our programs.
John Hennessy:The university is really about people and they're the core of what make an institution great.
John Hennessy:It's not all the beautiful buildings or the grounds.
John Hennessy:It's the people in the university.
John Hennessy:And I was really dedicated to not only recruiting great new young faculty, but helping them succeed and develop.
John Hennessy:So I think that was a key advantage that I had and led to some early successes.
Tina Seelig:I love that you were focused on making other people successful.
Tina Seelig:It wasn't about you, instead, you were putting the focus on other people and helping them become successful and to achieve their goals.
Tina Seelig:I know, I can tell you, I felt that when you were president of the university and I was a member of the community.
Tina Seelig:Was that your conscious goal?
Tina Seelig:Did you really think about that?
Tina Seelig:Like, my goal is to make other people in this community successful.
John Hennessy:Certainly.
John Hennessy:I think that's not just something that applied to the role that I had.
John Hennessy:It's an observation that applies to most leadership roles.
John Hennessy:Because leaders have to make the organization they're leading successful.
John Hennessy:And they do that by making individuals and teams successful.
John Hennessy:So for me, I discovered that I really enjoyed that role, that I liked helping people be successful, that I celebrated their successes.
John Hennessy:Whether it was a student winning a major award or a faculty member winning the Nobel Prize.
John Hennessy:Of course, I didn't do the work to win the Nobel Prize, they did.
John Hennessy:But I helped create an environment where they could achieve that incredible success.
Tina Seelig:As someone who's taught creative problem solving for decades.
Tina Seelig:I'm curious what role you think that problem identification and problem solving plays in leadership?
John Hennessy:Well, certainly it plays a key role, and I'd say in several aspects.
John Hennessy:First of all, really trying to understand what problem you're trying to solve.
John Hennessy:And why you're trying to solve that problem is crucial.
John Hennessy:And figuring out which of the really important problems that really would make a difference if you solve them, but then figuring out how you solve that.
John Hennessy:And I like to think of problem solving in two different ways.
John Hennessy:Certainly there are crises, there are problems you have to, difficulty you have to resolve.
John Hennessy:But there are positive aspects.
John Hennessy:How can I position the university or the organization to do something really extraordinary and what steps are necessary to make that happen.
Tina Seelig:Yeah.
Tina Seelig:So obviously problem solving can be proactive too, both seeing and seizing opportunities, not just solving problems that come your way.
Tina Seelig:What percentage of your time did you spend creating the vision and looking at problem solving as seeing big opportunities?
Tina Seelig:And how much were you reacting to problems that were coming your way?
John Hennessy:Like many things, it's cyclic.
John Hennessy:You have times when you're dealing with a crisis and it is all consuming and you're trying to address that issue.
John Hennessy:And then you have times where you're really trying to move an organization forward in a dramatic way.
John Hennessy:That's a time when you're more reflective and you're more thoughtful.
John Hennessy:And in fact, what I've discovered is you have to have your mind clear at that point.
John Hennessy:If all you're thinking about is the current crisis that's boiling over, you can't get the kind of creative juices going that are necessary to think about a new vision.
John Hennessy:So I spent a lot of my time, particularly summers and break time during the school year, were focused on crafting the vision rather than on solving the problem that was the problem of the week.
Tina Seelig:What were some of the big visions that you pondered when you were on your breaks?
John Hennessy:I think probably the big things we thought about, I would write a thought paper actually, at the end of that, so I could share my ideas with people, that was a vision for what the university was going to look like, which led to a major effort to build out multidisciplinary programs across the university.
John Hennessy:Knight-Hennessy was conceived of the same way, something I began to think about over a period of time and conceive of to develop into a thought paper that was called Project S at the time.
Tina Seelig:I also think that one of the most interesting things about your journey is that you didn't just stay in academics.
Tina Seelig:You spent time outside of the university developing a startup technology company.
Tina Seelig:Did you find that having that experience in industry helped shape the way you led in academics?
John Hennessy:For me, it was absolutely invaluable.
John Hennessy:I mean, I think first of all, I learned decision making under the pressure of time, because a startup can't be paralyzed by having to make a decision and things are not perfectly black or white.
John Hennessy:It's not exactly clear, it's gray, like lots of decisions you have to make in life.
John Hennessy:And so in a startup company, learning to do that because you've got time pressure, then helps you understand how you can do that in a large organization where you have the same kind of not black or white kinds of decisions to be made.
John Hennessy:So I think there's a great learning that went on there about how to lead and how to go through a crisis.
John Hennessy:I had my first crisis in our startup company.
John Hennessy:We had to do a layoff, we had to reset the company.
John Hennessy:Later on, when we faced a similar financial crisis in the university, I had been through that journey once.
John Hennessy:And I understood some of the key principles that were critical.
Tina Seelig:That's so interesting.
Tina Seelig:The trial by fire in this fast moving, high stressed environment of a startup that set you up to be much more prepared to deal with the crises in the university.
Tina Seelig:I also think you bring a really interesting perspective because of your love of history.
Tina Seelig:You know, sitting in your office, you're surrounded by lots and lots of history books and biographies.
Tina Seelig:How your knowledge and your love of history has shaped the way you think about your role as a leader?
John Hennessy:Well, I certainly look to people in history and see what their motivation was and how did they accomplish change.
John Hennessy:When I look at how did they face up to a crisis.
John Hennessy:You know, how did Washington get the Continental Army through the crisis of 1776 and the horrible winter in Valley Forge?
John Hennessy:How did Sarah Josephine Baker reform medical care and the care of children in New York City at a time when vast numbers of children were dying at young age because the very simple kinds of things that were understood by public health authorities had not become the established practice.
Tina Seelig:One of the things that I notice in leadership in general, and I'm curious your thoughts on this, is that sometimes people wait to be anointed.
Tina Seelig:They wait for someone to give them a leadership role before they start making leadership type decisions and behaving as a leader.
Tina Seelig:I'm a strong believer that you shouldn't wait for someone to put you in.
Tina Seelig:You should be looking around and seeing the problems and the opportunities around you.
Tina Seelig:Then you defacto become a leader no matter what role you're in.
Tina Seelig:What do you think about that?
John Hennessy:I've always encouraged people that I've worked with to take leadership positions.
John Hennessy:As a leader, you don't want to micromanage your team.
John Hennessy:You want your team to grow and take advantage of various opportunities.
John Hennessy:And then when you're in that position, the question is, what can you do?
John Hennessy:What change can you make?
John Hennessy:What do you want to leave as a legacy for your leadership in an organization?
John Hennessy:And that involves stepping up.
John Hennessy:I remember when I was in the interview for president, I said, look, don't pick me if you want somebody who's going to mind the store.
John Hennessy:Because I'm not just gonna mind the store.
John Hennessy:I'm gonna try to do bold new things for the university.
Tina Seelig:I always tell my students, you don't get the job, you get the keys to the building, and you got the keys to a very big building.
Tina Seelig:You know, once you're inside, you can sort of look at all the opportunities there and see where you can take it.
Tina Seelig:I love that.
Tina Seelig:One of the issues you just sort of brought to the surface is the difference between leading and managing.
Tina Seelig:What do you think is the difference and how do you kind of fit on that scale of leader versus manager?
John Hennessy:Well, I'm definitely on the leader side of that equation.
John Hennessy:Not to deny that management isn't part of what a leader has to do.
John Hennessy:It is part of what a leader has to do.
John Hennessy:You have to coach people, give them feedback, hire the right people.
John Hennessy:I mean, there are management aspects of the job.
John Hennessy:But once you've got the team and you've got the group you want, it's about leading.
John Hennessy:It's about getting them to go somewhere really ambitious.
John Hennessy:And that's not a management role.
John Hennessy:That's a leadership role.
Tina Seelig:So how do you go about picking people to complement you?
Tina Seelig:Because, you know, if you need to have people who are leaders and managers and people with different skills.
Tina Seelig:How do you go about filling out a team to make sure that everyone can get to the finish line that you all agree as the goal?
John Hennessy:I think you're right.
John Hennessy:You need people to complement your skills.
John Hennessy:And I was blessed when I was president to have the same provost for sixteen years.
John Hennessy:He's a philosopher, so very different than a computer scientist, although he's a logician.
John Hennessy:So we had some overlap in that regard, but that meant he had a different set of leadership skills.
John Hennessy:He was the most patient individual I've ever met in higher education, and that was absolutely crucial.
John Hennessy:The other thing we had to do is form a strong working relationship.
John Hennessy:So we could trust each other and we knew that we didn't have to duplicate or coordinate on every single little decision.
John Hennessy:But we could divide up the task of helping to lead the university.
Tina Seelig:Interesting.
Tina Seelig:Yes, I think having people with very, very complimentary skills, but shared values is really important.
Tina Seelig:I know from my experience, it was really great to have everyone on the team feel like they're doing quote unquote, the easy job.
Tina Seelig:Meaning they're doing the job that is really tuned to them.
Tina Seelig:I know that was my experience when I started my first company, it was a small company and everybody looked at everyone else and said, gosh, you know, I'm so appreciative that you're doing that because I couldn't do that.
Tina Seelig:They felt themselves that they were doing the thing that they were really tuned to.
Tina Seelig:And therefore, everyone really appreciated everybody else's contributions.
Tina Seelig:Is that what you strive for?
John Hennessy:That's certainly what I strive for.
John Hennessy:We strive for that at the university.
John Hennessy:We certainly have strived for that in building the team at Knight-Hennessy.
John Hennessy:To get that kind of complimentary ability where everybody is in the lane they belong in and they're doing a great job in that lane.
John Hennessy:And that makes for a real, a team effort.
John Hennessy:Think of it as a relay.
John Hennessy:You have to pass the baton off and you've got to pass the baton off well.
John Hennessy:And, and run your leg of the race or swim your leg of the race.
John Hennessy:And I think if everybody does their job exceptionally, then you win the race.
Tina Seelig:That's where the magic happens.
Tina Seelig:When the team, you know, sort of the old teamwork makes the dream work.
Tina Seelig:I'm curious if there were moments in your career where you really felt that the team was so highly tuned to the problems you were addressing.
Tina Seelig:I know personally, I feel that way about the KHS team right now.
Tina Seelig:It really is so beautiful to work together.
Tina Seelig:I'm curious about other places where you've had that experience.
John Hennessy:Certainly we had that experience during most of the time we were leading the university.
John Hennessy:As I mentioned, I had a great provost.
John Hennessy:But also getting great deans so that we could accomplish something.
John Hennessy:And having a working ability among the deans that they all, certainly each of our deans worried about their school and their responsibility for what their school was doing and achieving.
John Hennessy:But also thought about the greater good of the university.
John Hennessy:And that was critical to doing that.
John Hennessy:And when you get that, then it's really magic, you can accomplish marvelous things.
Tina Seelig:Speaking of accomplishing marvelous things, KHS is quite an incredible endeavor.
Tina Seelig:And just over the last six years, it has come to life in such an interesting and exciting way.
Tina Seelig:Can you share with everybody your motivation for starting Knight-Hennessy Scholars?
John Hennessy:My primary motivation arose at a time I took a very brief sabbatical from the presidency and I began to think about the outside world and what was happening in higher education.
John Hennessy:As well as the crises we were facing around the world.
John Hennessy:The collapse of Arab Spring, the refugee crisis, not only in the United States, but globally.
John Hennessy:Paralysis in Washington, several major scandals on the corporate side, including the 2008 financial crisis.
John Hennessy:And even some in nonprofit sectors where leaders went awry.
John Hennessy:I said, why aren't we doing a better job in higher education of preparing young people to lead in these complex times and be successful?
John Hennessy:And that was really the beginning of what eventually developed into Knight-Hennessy Scholars.
Tina Seelig:Well, I'm delighted that you did and we get to work together on all of this, including the leadership model, which we're going to be diving into through these six episodes.
Tina Seelig:Why do you think it's important to call out specific leadership traits and leadership behaviors in a leadership model?
John Hennessy:I think the traits and the behaviors are complementary in the sense that the traits create a foundation for the skills and characteristics and tools that leaders use.
John Hennessy:So you need a strong foundation if you're going to lead and particularly leading through difficult times, which we typically face.
John Hennessy:But then I think calling these out in the leadership model really helps us focus and think about how we develop program, so we can strengthen those characteristics and those traits in our young leaders.
Tina Seelig:It's also important that the characteristics that we have in our leadership model are not just skills and traits that are only developed when you're in a large leadership role.
Tina Seelig:But they can be developed at any place and at any time in your life.
Tina Seelig:Things like being curious and open minded and empathetic and courageous.
Tina Seelig:These are things you can practice at any place in the world, no matter where you are in your career.
Tina Seelig:Now, our students come to Knight-Hennessey Scholars really excited about addressing some of the biggest problems facing the world, such as climate change, curing diseases, education equity.
Tina Seelig:How do you think people should go about finding the problems that they are going to tackle?
Tina Seelig:How do they decide where their passion is?
Tina Seelig:How do they decide what they're going to focus their energy on?
John Hennessy:So Tina, I think the people I know that have been most successful have exhibited two characteristics in choosing what they work on.
John Hennessy:First of all, they are passionate about what they're working on.
John Hennessy:They want to solve that problem, they're driven to solve it.
John Hennessy:Secondly, the skills they need to solve the problem, the approach they need aligns with their skillset.
John Hennessy:So they're picking a problem, that, A, they can really make progress on and contribute to.
John Hennessy:And that they are driven to work on.
John Hennessy:I used to tell our freshmen, you should work on something that gets you out of bed on Saturday morning early.
John Hennessy:Not because you need to be there, but because you really want to make a difference on that problem, on that issue, attacking that aspect.
Tina Seelig:You know, it's interesting.
Tina Seelig:If you're a curious person, everything is really fascinating.
Tina Seelig:I'm sure that if I was focused on the sewer system of New York, it would be fascinating.
Tina Seelig:Or if I decided to dive into the philosophy of ancient Greeks or how to build a robot.
Tina Seelig:And so for me, one of the biggest issues is picking something where you're really curious, but also it is tuned to your skills.
Tina Seelig:If you find something where you're really skilled and where you're really passionate, and when there's a market, that's where your life's work really shines and where you develop a real career.
John Hennessy:Yeah.
John Hennessy:So I certainly agree.
John Hennessy:We sometimes talk about T shaped people, Tina, people that have real depth and expertise, but also have that top bar on the T.
John Hennessy:That means they're curious about other things and they can interact with people and talk about their work and talk about other people's work in an intelligent and thoughtful fashion.
Tina Seelig:I think it's one of the things that we get to do at Knight-Hennessy is bring people together with so many different disciplines.
Tina Seelig:The amount of cross pollination across these ideas is fascinating and I know that the students really value that.
Tina Seelig:So, how do you coach students who come to your office and have their whole life planned out?
Tina Seelig:I know that this happens, you know, to me frequently, is people come in and they've got their, you know, forty life, forty year life plan in front of them.
Tina Seelig:What is it that you tell people when they come in and they've got a whole game plan for the future?
John Hennessy:I tell them that, first of all, I think it's just fine to have a long term goal of where you want to get in your life.
John Hennessy:But to have a step by step plan is not likely to be followed because you simply never know where one particular step is going to lead.
John Hennessy:And I ask them to think about, what do they want in that first step?
John Hennessy:And think about how are they going to grow?
John Hennessy:What are they going to learn?
John Hennessy:What kind of team are they going to work with, which will help them develop their skills?
John Hennessy:And that's what they should be looking for in that first step.
John Hennessy:And then after that, we'll see where the path leads and that's what students should really try to embrace.
Tina Seelig:When you were a PhD student, how did you pick the project that you ended up working on?
John Hennessy:Yeah, that's a fascinating question.
John Hennessy:It was a question of a bit of curiosity and luck.
John Hennessy:And as you sometimes say, sometimes luck comes your way and you need to grab it, right?
John Hennessy:What happened was a person who was working at Brookhaven National Lab came in with the project.
John Hennessy:It was the very early days of the very first microprocessors, which were only eight bits at the time, and they were just coming out.
John Hennessy:And he was interested in using them to control an X ray bone density scanner.
John Hennessy:This was something that had never been done.
John Hennessy:The software didn't exist.
John Hennessy:I said, well, that's an interesting problem.
John Hennessy:And that became my thesis topic.
Tina Seelig:I think that's such a great example because you could have said, oh, that's interesting.
Tina Seelig:And then turned in another direction and gone back to what you were working on.
Tina Seelig:But you were willing to pursue that curiosity and the rest is history.
Tina Seelig:I have a similar situation that happened when I was doing my PhD.
Tina Seelig:I would go home and make dinner and I was super curious.
Tina Seelig:I was doing my PhD in neuroscience and go home and make dinner.
Tina Seelig:And I thought, gosh, I know what's happening in great depth in my lab.
Tina Seelig:But I really don't know what's happening in my kitchen.
Tina Seelig:And I made a list of all the questions I had, you know, for example, like, gosh, most liquids, you heat them up, they turn into a gas, but you've got a liquid egg, you heat it up, it turns into a solid.
Tina Seelig:What's going on here?
Tina Seelig:Or why does popcorn pop?
Tina Seelig:Or why does onion makes you cry?
Tina Seelig:I started making a list of all the questions I had.
Tina Seelig:And at that point, way back then, I couldn't find the answers to these questions.
Tina Seelig:So I decided to write a book about it.
Tina Seelig:And so I started writing this book on the chemistry of cooking while I was in graduate school.
Tina Seelig:And that ended up taking me on a really interesting journey that was very exciting and also surprising that would never have happened if I hadn't followed that path.
Tina Seelig:Can you share an opportunity of other places where you took a path that was not well laid out that led to interesting opportunities?
John Hennessy:One of the fascinating things that happened to me, I had just become Dean of Engineering.
John Hennessy:And one of my colleagues, Teresa Meng, came to me with some technology she had developed as part of her research.
John Hennessy:And the technology involved building a low power GPS system that could be used in the field with minimal battery consumption.
John Hennessy:She observed that really what she had done is built a low power radio.
John Hennessy:And she said, I have this interesting technology, but I don't know what to do with it.
John Hennessy:It'd be great to start a company, but what problem would we solve?
John Hennessy:So we spent some time visiting people around Silicon Valley.
John Hennessy:At that time, the technologies which were doing wireless networks had all failed.
John Hennessy:They were too expensive, they were too battery, they consumed batteries too quickly.
John Hennessy:So we slowly developed this idea of really trying to build wireless technology using this invention she had.
John Hennessy:We went out, started the company.
John Hennessy:In the end, we became one of the leaders in developing early Wi-Fi technology and the company took off and was incredibly successful.
John Hennessy:But only because we were able, it was an ambitious thing.
John Hennessy:In fact, when we went to talk to the venture capitalists, one of the venture capitalists who had an expert person who came in said, oh, you're five years too early.
John Hennessy:You're five years ahead of your time.
John Hennessy:This is too big a risk.
John Hennessy:It won't work yet.
John Hennessy:He was wrong.
John Hennessy:And Teresa was right.
Tina Seelig:That's so interesting.
Tina Seelig:I'm always fascinated with the types of risks that people are willing to take.
Tina Seelig:And do you take on a project that has a high likelihood of success or you take on a project that has, is going to be really meaningful if it is successful?
John Hennessy:I have always pursued a little bit of both routes.
John Hennessy:I do want to try and get up at home plate and hit a few home runs.
John Hennessy:But I probably want to take a few singles in between so that I can guarantee I'm advancing people around the bases, while also taking some opportunities to really do something remarkable and hit the Grand Slam, right?
Tina Seelig:Right.
Tina Seelig:My PhD advisor used to always tell me, you need to have your bread and butter project.
Tina Seelig:The one that you know is going to be successful and is going to lead to some meaningful results.
Tina Seelig:But you can have your pie in the sky project that you're working on the side.
Tina Seelig:That if it is successful has low probability.
Tina Seelig:But if it is, it's really, really going to be impressive and impactful.
Tina Seelig:So let's go back to leadership because here we are together working on this leadership program.
Tina Seelig:People ask me all the time, can you really teach leadership?
Tina Seelig:And what do you think?
Tina Seelig:Can you do that?
John Hennessy:I like an analogy here.
John Hennessy:Think about a newborn baby.
John Hennessy:They don't know how to say any words.
John Hennessy:They don't know any, even the idea of language, they don't understand.
John Hennessy:And somehow they learn something, which is one of the key characteristics of what makes humans different from other forms of life on this planet, the ability to converse in a complex language.
John Hennessy:If we can teach language, we can teach almost anything.
John Hennessy:I believe you can teach leadership.
John Hennessy:There are skills, there are traits to be reinforced in our leadership model, and there are specific skills you can use.
John Hennessy:Those are the tools that leaders use.
Tina Seelig:I couldn't agree more.
Tina Seelig:You can teach math, you can teach science, you can teach sports, you can teach art.
Tina Seelig:Of course, you can teach leadership.
Tina Seelig:And one of the things we do at Knight-Hennessy is to give the students an opportunity to practice leading.
Tina Seelig:And one of the projects that I'm most excited about is our Keystone Projects.
Tina Seelig:And the students get a chance to pitch ideas for projects in the fall, anything they're interested in, they want to tackle.
Tina Seelig:It could be something they know a lot about or something they want to learn about.
Tina Seelig:Teams get formed around these projects.
Tina Seelig:We give them a little bit of support.
Tina Seelig:We help them find mentors and we see what happens.
Tina Seelig:In the spring, there's the Keystone Projects Showcase.
Tina Seelig:And it's really exciting to see what they accomplish starting with essentially a blank canvas and a question.
Tina Seelig:I'm curious, what are some of the projects, John, that you found most exciting?
John Hennessy:Well, I think we've seen projects develop in a whole series of different areas.
John Hennessy:I mean, one of the ones I've been excited about is the Education Justice Academy, which really tries to work on the problem of how do we prepare people to join school boards.
John Hennessy:How do we give them the skills they need to be a successful school board member, understand budgeting and hiring principals and supervisors and things like that.
John Hennessy:Something that we haven't paid attention to.
John Hennessy:Even though school boards are the number one way people begin a public service career or involvement.
John Hennessy:We've had projects working on the homeless situation in the Bay Area, a very difficult problem.
John Hennessy:We've got a new project going on trying to address the shortage of mental health counselors in the U.S.
John Hennessy:So these are all tremendous projects, and I think several of them will go on to big successes later on.
Tina Seelig:It has been so exciting to see the evolution of this project.
Tina Seelig:When it started, we had maybe a dozen projects in our community.
Tina Seelig:And this year we had three times as many.
Tina Seelig:And we're even piloting starting to offer funding for students who are going to be going out and starting these ventures, our global impact funds.
Tina Seelig:In fact, last year we gave out two grants to students who were starting projects as nonprofits once they graduated.
Tina Seelig:John, this has been a wonderful start to our multi week conversation.
Tina Seelig:The next five episodes, we're going to dive into the traits and behaviors in our leadership model.
Tina Seelig:And in the next episode, we're going to be talking about curiosity, empathy, and humility, and how these are fundamental traits for a leader.
John Hennessy:I'm looking forward to it, Tina.
Tina Seelig:There are four takeaways from this episode.
Tina Seelig:One, the hallmark of good leadership is helping other people reach their goals and making them successful.
Tina Seelig:Two, start acting like a leader before being designated one.
Tina Seelig:Look for opportunities to contribute and lead.
Tina Seelig:Three, when you build a team, look for people who complement your skills.
Tina Seelig:People who are different than you.
Tina Seelig:And four, to choose what you work on from the intersection of your skills, your passions, and the market.
Tina Seelig:Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Leading Matters.
Tina Seelig:Please follow and like us wherever you listen to podcasts.
Tina Seelig:And stay engaged with Knight-Hennessy scholars through social media @KnightHennessy and on our website, KH.Stanford.edu.